Florent Ghisolfi has explained the conversation that changed his thinking on Sunderland’s long-term potential

Florent Ghisolfi says Sunderland must “break the limit” on what the club can become after revealing how an early conversation with club historian Rob Mason helped shift his perspective.

Sunderland’s director of football has made clear that the Black Cats must remain grounded and alert to the brutal demands of the Premier League, but he also believes the club’s history should fuel real ambition rather than caution.

Asked about the long-term vision for Sunderland, Ghisolfi reflected on a conversation with Mason which stayed with him for days afterwards. “I always like to speak about my first conversation with the historian of the club, Rob Mason,” Ghisolfi said.

“When we were speaking, he has big passion like me. Sometimes I don’t understand what he said. He said Sunderland was the best club in England. I said, ‘Can you repeat, please?’ The best club in England for years. The best, not one of the best. He said yes, it was once like for some years here now Man City was the one. And this had an impact for days, in my mind, thinking, if one club was the one, the best one, at least it could become one of the best.”

Ghisolfi believes that reminder of Sunderland’s history should challenge those inside the club not to place artificial limits on its future. The Frenchman, who joined Sunderland after turning down interest from Newcastle United, Juventus, Fiorentina and Neom, has repeatedly stressed the need for ambition to be matched by discipline.

“I was thinking, we have to break this limit that I can, myself, Tom [Burwell], everyone, we can put the limit ourselves,” he said. “Because the conversation from Lens before, we can think, it’s good, it’s perfect, seventh in the rankings, top. We have to break this limit. But, in the meantime, we cannot sleep for five minutes. We need to be ambitious, focus on everything, but we cannot sleep because the Premier League, my feeling is, the Premier League punishes your weaknesses.”

Ghisolfi pointed to established clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Nottingham Forest as examples of the scale of competition Sunderland now faces. His message was clear: Sunderland can be ambitious, but only if every part of the club continues to improve.

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“If you keep some weaknesses, it was Tottenham, West Ham, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest, I think at the end,” he said. “They are big clubs. They can also be, or they are for Tottenham, but they can also be top clubs. So, you can be there, but you can be there.”

On transfers, Ghisolfi added: “I believe in stability, season after season. My example is more Athletic Bilbao, where they don't have the choice [because they only select players of Basque heritage], and they have stability. Some clubs can change 15 players a year - we don’t want that. Of course, last summer we needed this refreshment, I have to say. But for this summer, I prefer stability; I prefer to work on the team and the players we have.”

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